If you grow up in places like Kasungu district in rural Malawi, you learn that when your wife is pregnant, you should not have sex outside marriage---because you will lose the “expected gift” through miscarriage. Male promiscuity during a partner's pregnancy is a taboo that many believe will bring a curse on the family.

Patricia Patrick says that after she miscarried in November 2008 “People talked in the village, and people talked within the household. My relatives asked me suspicious questions.” They wondered whether sexual misbehavior by her husband caused the tragedy. She remembers her husband telling his side of the story to prove his innocence, but nobody believed him.